Our discipline is dedicated to reducing friction. Our goal is to reduce the friction of computing and communication as much as possible. But should zero friction really be our goal? Let's bring friction back into computing.Moshe Y. VardiPage 5DEPARTMENT: From the president

I hope this headline got your attention! Of course, as with all voluntary positions at ACM, the salary is $0.00/year. However, you gain incalculably in satisfaction when you volunteer your time in any of the myriad opportunities …
Vinton G. CerfPage 7

The relationship ACM has with the computing community itself is ultimately less important for ACM than the need to continue offering valuable services to you, the reader and member of this community.Scott E. DelmanPage 9DEPARTMENT: Letters to the Editor

Trade and professional journals tell us how to achieve information security solutions, but such advice is not supported by experience. The confidentiality needed to achieve security greatly inhibits valid research and adequate …
CACM StaffPages 12-13DEPARTMENT: BLOG@CACM

Engineers are reinventing electronics by building safe devices that dissolve in the body or within the environment. The technology could redefine everything from medicine to computing.Samuel GreengardPages 20-22

The race to build ever-faster supercomputers is on, with more contenders than ever before. However, the current goals set for this race may not lead to the fastest computation for particular applications.Michael J. Flynn, Oskar Mencer, Veljko Milutinovic, Goran Rakocevic, Per Stenstrom, Roman Trobec, Mateo ValeroPages 39-42SECTION: Practice

It has been an open question whether it is possible to build GPU-targeted high-performance software systems that are themselves programmable. "GPU Ray Tracing" shows how to achieve both programmability and high performance …
Matt PharrPage 92